On Saturday, February 7, 2009, ComingOutInfo (InfoVyhod) takes place on the topic: “Russia’s LGBT-community of the 19th and early 20th century: characteristics of the epoch and outstanding personalities”.

Russia’s LGBT-community has a history. We mustn’t forget about that. Especially now, when voices are heard that “homosexuality is an infection brought from the West”. Non-heterosexuals have always formed a stable minority in Russia, such as in any other culture. Furthermore, when social norms were more liberal there was less homophobia in society. Only by knowing our past we can live confidently in the present and build our future. LGBT are people with history!

The expert we invited is Yuri Piryutko, a Petersburg local historian, litterateur and author of the book “The Other Petersburg” (written under the pseudonym of K.K. Rotikov). The book, which was released in 1998, became the first outstanding biography of Russia’s distinguished non-heterosexual cultural workers.

What unites Mikhail Lermontov and Nikolai Martynov; Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Aleksey Apukhtin; Nikolai Klyuev and Sergey Esenin; Sergey Sudeykin and Mikhail Kuzmin; Sergey Dyagilev and Konstantin Somov - many found out only after reading the book “The Other Petersburg”.

As always, you are invited to listen to us live on air on radio Queer FM!

We are waiting for you to join us, as always,

on Saturday at 6 p.m., Ligovskiy Prospekt, 87, office 300

Don’t forget to bring an ID to show to the security guards of the business center.

Your organization “Coming Out”